Allan MacMaster; photo courtesy NS PC party
Incumbent PC Candidate Allan MacMaster was easily re-elected in Inverness Tuesday, enjoying an over 1700 vote cushion over Liberal challenger Damian MacInnis, and earning over 55% of the overall vote in the district.
MacMaster, who was first elected in Inverness in a by-election in 2009 and was re-elected in 2013 and 2017 was given a fourth term in part for promising an elected Tory government would double the provincial budget for road repair and maintain local roads.
“It still feels nice, but there was nothing like that first time, MacMaster said, “But this time it feels nice because I look around the province I see a lot of my colleagues elected and I some new soon to be colleagues elected.”
The PC Party has held the Inverness seat since 1999.
Speaking on his win Tuesday, MacMaster mentioned health care and broadband internet as key issues for his riding, but mentioned a number of key factors coming together to limit options of affordable housing.
“Well, there’s certainly a role for government to help when there’s problems that we have right now, with things like housing — we’re in a perfect storm,” MacMaster said, adding some areas have lost homes off the market to short term rentals and a tremendous rise in the cost of building materials, while citing the current frenzy in the real estate market not just in affordable housing, “but in the development of housing in general.”
Inverness was later to report initial results Tuesday, but polls quickly moved tallies once results became available, with MacMaster projected to win earlier in the evening.
Joanna Clark, a local advocate of accessible and equitable post-secondary education, affordable childcare, and the NDP’s pick for the Inverness race finished third.
